Brian H. Madsen - .Net Powered by Caffeine : Geeky News

Send Sara Ford to Tech-Ed Australia, vote

Brian Madsen — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:18:01 GMT

An excellent opportunity has come up to get Sara Ford shipped down under to present at Microsoft Tech-Ed Australia!

Sara put a petition video together which you can watch here.

Afterwards head on over to the twtpoll and put your vote to good use by voting “Yes, absolutely”!

Read more about her endeavours to go down south on Sara’s blog here.

Microsoft Tech-Ed Australia is promising to be an absolutely awesome event this year (yes, i’m going too!!!! w00t).

For a bit of behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in the lead-up to Tech-Ed, read the backstage ramblings of all the geeks that’s taking good care of us.

It’s also just been announced that it’s 90% sold out! so unless you want to miss out i’d be quick about registering!

International Laksa Day

Brian Madsen — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT

We discovered some time back, that team building is very important here, so to continue along that track it's been decided that International Laksa Day.

This is the day we go to a great place in Perth to eat Laksa for the not-so-time-honoured tradition (i think it's a very, very new tradition).

So, as of the 22nd of May, 2009, International Laksa day has been born.

Now, i wonder how many other "traditions" geeks have around the world?

Thrive - Microsoft launches career coach

Brian Madsen — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:03:00 GMT

Microsoft has just launched a new site for handling your career - besides the content i'd like to add as a sidenote that it's great to see Silverlight used in public web sites launched by MSFT.

Including fact sheets and certification information there's also technical introduction videos available - currently there aren't that many but i'm hoping to see a lot more in the coming months.

The site is geared towards YOUR career - certification, career changes etc and i actually like it. It's a much better "entry" into the certification program while also having great industry relevant content available.

In the career change section there's a lot of excellent content, how to job search in 2009, resume/cv guidelines, interview questions and even how to present yourself at an interview together with body language.

Microsoft Certification Offers – Australia only

Brian Madsen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:09:50 GMT

Microsoft has just launched their Microsoft Certification Hero Campaign which enables MVPs to forward some nice benefits for those wishing to take any MCTS, MCITP or MCPD exams before May 31st, 2009.

Here’s a link to the specific certifications:

www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcts/default.mspx
www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcitp/default.mspx
www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcpd/default.mspx

Now, the benefits include:

10% discount + a free exam should you not pass.

So how do you get these benefits, simple:

1) Go to www.learnandcertify.com and enter the MVP Certification Promotion Code by March, 31st, 2009
2) An exam offer voucher will be sent to you (via email)
3) Decide which exam to take by going to www.learnandcertify.com or visit the above three links for details
4) Schedule an exam at a Prometric (www.prometric.com/microsoft) and use the exam voucher code sent to you

This offer is only available, via me, to residents in Australia (as I’m awarded in Australia) and unfortunately not in the rest of the world (other MVPs may be eligible, but I’m not).

The MVP Certification Promotion Code to be used at www.learnandcertify.com is: AUF17D9E

This is an excellent opportunity to get a certification under the belt with the added bonus of being able to resit the exam if it doesn’t go well the first time.

Note: there may be other MVPs who offer this as well – so keep an eye out for MVPs in your country (as we can only use the code above for the country we’re living in).

Microsoft releases Chart Controls for .Net 3.5 SP1 - and they're free!!!!

Brian Madsen — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:41:00 GMT

Microsoft just recently released some very handy .Net Chart Controls for .Net 3.5 and does require SP1 - something which i've been waiting forever to see.

These controls are very crisp looking and come in both 3D and 2D versions. There's a whole range of chart types available.

I'm going to have a serious play with them and see what capabilities these controls offer. I hope they include AJAX capability (for the ASP.Net ones that is) and that we can extend them if we need to.

This was announced on Scott Guthrie's blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/11/24/new-asp-net-charting-control-lt-asp-chart-runat-quot-server-quot-gt.aspx

Here's a few links for those of us too lazy to dig them up ourselves (thanks Scott!):

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=130f7986-bf49-4fe5-9ca8-910ae6ea442c&DisplayLang=en

VS2008 Support:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1D69CE13-E1E5-4315-825C-F14D33A303E9&displaylang=en

Forum:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/MSWinWebChart/threads/

Documentation:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EE8F6F35-B087-4324-9DBA-6DD5E844FD9F&displaylang=en

Web and Winform samples:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mschart/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1591

Chart Control Language Packs:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=45&p=3&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=130f7986-bf49-4fe5-9ca8-910ae6ea442c&u=details.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d581FF4E3-749F-4454-A5E3-DE4C463143BD%26displaylang%3den

.Net 3.5 SP1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=47&p=2&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=130f7986-bf49-4fe5-9ca8-910ae6ea442c&u=details.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dAB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7%26displaylang%3den

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 3

.NET Framework: .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Processor: 400 MHz Pentium processor or equivalent (Minimum); 1GHz Pentium processor or equivalent (Recommended)
RAM:96 MB (Minimum); 256 MB (Recommended)
Hard Disk: Up to 500 MB of available space may be required
CD or DVD Drive: Not required
Display: 800 x 600, 256 colors (Minimum); 1024 x 768 high color, 32-bit (Recommended)

As usual, it pays to keep an eye out on Scott's blog. Now i just hope they're easier to implement than some of the other third party vendor controls i've been working with in the past. Some has been an absolute nightmare to get working, some has used nifty Wizard-like UIs inside Visual Studio and others have "professed" to have capabilities for supporting AJAX where it was soon discovered that it was only in "some" scenarios (eg, the exact single scenario they had displayed).

Apparently the sample project from CodePlex contains more than 200 examples - i guess now its just up to me to have a real play with it.

Sobees - taking social networking a step further

Brian Madsen — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:07:00 GMT

Frank Arrigo (still) Australia's premier geek and techoblogger, posted about Sobees - this is the first i've heard of it, but dang it looks good!!

Over the last couple of years, social networking has become an essential part of an IT Professional's life (if not career) and more and more companies are viewing it with less sceptisism than they did 5 years ago. Blogging and networking is still the number #1 way of keeping up to date with what goes on in the world of IT these days.

Nevermind the sleek and cool interface, built entirely on WPF, .Net 3.5 SP1 and SQL Server 2008, it's a fresh new way of networking that I personally think will redefy how we think about social networks.

I haven't had a chance to install it yet - going through a full patch and SP install on my laptop when i saw the post. But will definitely give it a go as soon as i'm done.

Get a look at Sobees here: www.sobees.com - the public beta has been released so no excuses!

JRE to include MSN Toolbar..Sun and Microsoft best buddies?

Brian Madsen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:43:00 GMT

Saw this article today, which related to the JRE runtime and the fact that they'll be including the MSN toolbar with its download.

"Who says the age of miracles is past? Sun, which loathes Microsoft, is going to distribute Microsoft’s search toolbar with its Java Runtime Environment.

Nope, it’s not April fool’s. More like Sun and Microsoft slurping out of the Obama “change” cup.

IE users who download the JRE will be able to download the MSN Toolbar along with it."

When i read those opening lines i was like "what?" - must be an april fools day joke..in november though!! But no, it's not, JRE's deal with Google is ending apparently and the swap from the Google Toolbar to MSN Toolbar is going to happen.

"Microsoft, of course, is getting sloppy seconds. Google has piggybacked on JRE since 2005 and now that deal is reportedly ending. A similar deal with Yahoo continues."

I've always hated the Google Toolbar - had major problems with it in the past (think i blogged it at some stage even) and since i removed it back then it hasn't gotten back onto my laptop.

Read the full article here: http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/node/744099

DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS - Steve Balmer in Sydney, 6th of November

Brian Madsen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:21:00 GMT

Update: You can still catch the event as it's being streamed on the www.microsoft.com.au/powertodevelopers site. So if you missed it, go have a look this weekend.

Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft, is in Sydney and will be addressing Australian Developers.

Roughly 1000 developers will be attending the speech, which starts at 3:30pm AEST (Sydney time).

If you want to have a look at it you can view the speech as ZDNet is broadcasting it all live for the public.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Steve-Ballmer-Live-on-ZDNet-com-au/0,139023166,339292780,00.htm

More information can also be found at the official site for the visit - amply titled - Power To Developers.

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/powertodevelopers/ - this site will also stream the session/event (basically that also means that ZDNet isn't having an exclusive, but nevermind that).

Want more? well there's also a XBox 360 Liberation Pack available to be won, simply by registering here:

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/powertodevelopers/liberation_pack/liberation_pack.html

So what is it all about:

The Movement to "Client + Cloud"
As often happens with industry transformations, some early commentators and dedicated software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors advocated the extreme position that Internet services would entirely replace on-premise software. They defined the future as 'cloud only' with some even taking the inherently contradictory view of a future with 'no software'. As technologists have more deeply considered the advantages and disadvantages of services and realized that, ultimately, customers need solutions optimised for their specific needs, it has become clear that by marrying the advantages of Internet services with the advantages of client or server software, it is possible to deliver solutions that provide new capabilities and offer new levels of utility, convenience and flexibility.

Support from all sides
Evidence of the benefits of this marriage between software and services is demonstrated across the software industry by countless examples of companies enhancing their applications with the addition of services. Companies that people think of as 'services-only' SaaS providers are providing installable software components to better address their customers' needs. Web-based companies including Google, Yahoo! and eBay all ship client software to enhance their web-based offerings. Line-of-business applications vendors including Salesforce.com and RightNow have acknowledged the importance of the offline capabilities of software and the need to integrate their services with their customers' preferred tools, particularly Microsoft Outlook, rather than force them to learn multiple, separate browser-based UIs.

Equality for devices
Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help its customers and partners capitalise on the opportunities presented by the evolution to software-plus-services. While Microsoft's competitors have mostly chosen to specialise in one class of services manifestation: services delivery (SaaS), services composition (SOA) or the services experience (Web 2.0), Microsoft's platform uniquely supports all of these. Only the Microsoft platform supports the development of software across a range of devices in addition to the PC, the various types of browser clients, servers in data-centres and Internet services.

There's also going to be two other "celebrities" attending, and each will be presenting on a topic that's very much in-the-now, especially if you've watched any of the PDC 2008 sessions.

On the Cloud side, Gianpaolo Carraro, Senior Director, Microsoft Corporation, will discuss Microsoft’s vision for cloud computing and how its various components come together, with a great range of demos.

On the Client side, Tim Sneath, Director, Microsoft Corporation, will show you technologies that work hand in hand with Cloud services to liberate you to build the applications you dream of – for Windows or the Web.

This is a one off opportunity as we will definitely not be seeing Steve Balmer on an every day basis.

This has to be the best idea ever - Baconnaise

Brian Madsen — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:07:00 GMT

A young colleague of mine sent me this link today and i must say it has to be the absolute best idea ever!!!!

http://www.baconnaise.com/

Man, i love bacon...i love the taste of bacon...If i could have bacon flavoured coffee then i'm sure i'd be in heaven.

They sell all kinds of "Bacon" related stuff - Bacon Salt as well...man, i'm soooo going to look into getting hold of this!!

Update: OMG!!!!! there's a Bacon Salt Blog too!!! http://www.baconsaltblog.com/ wicked!!!

The official Bacon Salt site: http://www.baconsalt.com/

This HAS to be the next best thing after.....nevermind, it's BETTER than sliced bread (and sex??)!! Go guys!

Perth gets two (sorry, three) brand new MVPs – Congratulations to the both of you!!

Brian Madsen — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:36:00 GMT

The communities i Perth are thriving – evidence of this is that we now have two (yes, 2) three (i stand corrected, we have 3) new MVPs.

The first is Mitch Wheat – everybody knows Mitch as the leader and organiser of the Perth .Net Community of Practise user group. Mitch has been running the group for quite a while and as i’ve said before he does so brilliantly.

So welcome and congratulations to Mitch.

Mitch was awarded in the C# group, so we now have another developer based MVP in Perth!

The second person is Sezai Komur (apologies to Sezai for the terrible cut/paste job for his blog url) – whom got awarded in the SharePoint group.

I’ve been following his blog for quite a while now and he definitely know what he’s talking about.

I hope to see more from Sezai in the future and want to welcome him into our little cozy family.

Congratulations Sezai – SharePoint is THE platform of choice for many these days and i’m certain you’ll be busy!

Technorati Tags: Mitch Wheat,Sezai Komur,MVP

Office DevCon 2008 – Nov 1-2

Brian Madsen — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:30:19 GMT

Was just informed this morning, by Graham Seach, that the Office DevCon 2008 site has gone live. If you’re into office development (that’s Microsoft Office…VSTO FTW!!!) then this is the event of the year that you don’t want to miss.

Speaker opportunities are still available so if you have something funky to show off then this is the place to do it at.

Office DevCon is an annual community-driven conference that allows Microsoft Office developers and power users to come together in one location to hear expert speakers present on a wide range of Office-related topics.

Over 2 days, you will hear presentations on advanced core Office technologies for Office 2003 and 2007, including Word, Access, Excel, SharePoint, PowerPoint, Groove, InfoPath, OneNote and Outlook. We may also be able to provide some previews of Office 14, the next version.

The inaugural Australian event was held in November 2007, and was an unprecedented success - check out last year's programme at http://www.block.net.au/devcon/programme.htm. The 2008 event has already generated an extraordinary level of interest from many local and international speakers and organisations, and promises to ‘raise the bar’ even higher.

This year, the format will be even more exciting. We’ll still have our popular deep-dive sessions and hands-on labs, but we’ll also have RapidFire and OpenSpace sessions to provide greater opportunities to learn about Office technologies and techniques, and to interact with world-class experts.

It is free to attend Office DevCon, but accommodation and transportation costs are up to you, as are the cost of your meals.

To enable the Office DevCon 2008 organisers to arrange event catering and seating, you must register to attend the two day event by completing the registration form - http://www.officedevcon.com.au/registration/default.aspx.

For a bit more info you should head over to the Office DevCon site now (www.officedevcon.com.au).

The agenda has also been published (naturally, if new speakers are added, this agenda will change): http://www.officedevcon.com.au/agenda/default.aspx

Technorati Tags: VSTO,Office DevCon

Must have application gets certified…Diskeeper rocks the virtualisation world

Brian Madsen — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:48:52 GMT

Here’s some news that i’m seriously impressed with – not only because i’ve been using Diskeeper for a LOOONG time, but also because of the level they’ve come to.

Diskeeper has just been certified for Hyper-v…that’s alongside IBM and Symantec..Not too shabby i say!

So a big round of applause goes to the guys at Diskeeper for getting this benchmark under their hat.

DISKEEPER Helps Customers Get Virtual

with Windows Server 2008 HYPER-V

BURBANK, Calif.–Aug. 12, 2008 – Diskeeper Corporation today announced that its flagship Diskeeper^©2008 automatic defragmenter achieved Certified for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V status from Microsoft. Diskeeper 2008 is one of the first three applications, out of 175 applications currently certified for Windows Server 2008, to earn the Hyper V designation.

“Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is an excellent option for corporations looking to save power and space, ease provisioning efforts and achieve full hardware utilization through virtualization. We’ve been an innovative early adopter, worked closely with Microsoft’s developers since the advent of Windows NT and were pleased to do so as well with Hyper-V,” said Michael Materie, Diskeeper product manager at Diskeeper Corp.

All systems suffer from file fragmentation. Servers suffer even more so due to their heavy multi-user traffic. And virtual servers yet further since fragmentation takes place on three separate levels—the virtual, the physical disk and the mapping in between them. Without a professional grade defragmenter designed to address the virtual issues, server performance is going to crawl to a slow.

Thanks to recent developments in transparent processing technology (known as InvisiTasking^®), defragmentation of such systems with Diskeeper 2008 has now become a fully automated process. This speeds up server response time, ensures the level of virtual disk performance is optimal and saves time by taking the guesswork out of defragmenting. With this new approach, Diskeeper 2008 has become an indispensable tool to the system administrator.

“After independent testing, we found that Diskeeper’s automatic defragmenter not only exploits Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V capabilities but also is designed to meet mission-critical expectations in a virtualized environment,” said Eric Jewett, Windows Server Marketing group product manager at Microsoft.

For more information about Diskeeper 2008 automatic disk defragmentation for Windows Server 2008, call 800-829-6468 or visit www.diskeeper.com.

Technorati Tags: Diskeeper,Hyper-V,Windows Server 2008